Crossword Genius

Court official's relative meaning to meet judge (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

magistrate

'court official's' is the definition.
(type of court official)

'relative meaning to meet judge' is the wordplay.
'relative' becomes 'ma' (ma is a kind of relative).
'meaning' becomes 'gist' (gist is a kind of meaning).
'to meet judge' becomes 'rate' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ma'+'gist'+'rate'='MAGISTRATE'

(Other definitions for magistrate that I've seen before include "Capital of Ethiopia" , "Person in court" , "your worship" , "Court head" , "Court official" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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